Turkiye national football team routed North Macedonia as part of World Cup preparations

Turkiye's national football team played its first friendly match as part of preparations for the upcoming 2026 World Cup, which will be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The match took place in Istanbul at the stadium in Kadikoy, where the Turkish national team returned after almost seventeen hundred days. The opponent was North Macedonia, but there was no real contest on the pitch, as Vincenzo Montella's side completely dominated throughout the game and earned a convincing 4:0 victory.

The scoring was opened as early as the second minute, when Orkun Kokcu found the net after a precise pass from Oguz Aydin. In the sixteenth minute, the hosts doubled their advantage with a well-placed shot into the left corner from Can Uzun. In the second half, the rout continued thanks to a precise header from Deniz Gul after a cross into the penalty area, and the final touch came in the seventieth minute from Baris Alper Yilmaz. The Turkish head coach used the match to give the squad a major test of the reserves, leaving nine key players out of the lineup, including Hakan Calhanoglu, who spent the entire game on the bench.

This victory allowed the national team to confirm its excellent form at the start of the summer preparation cycle and provided an important emotional boost ahead of the next friendly matches. Residents of Northern Cyprus traditionally follow Turkiye's national team matches with great interest, so major victories on the international stage are always accompanied by mass screenings in local venues and active discussion within the island's football community.